Chu Thai Hoanh

Dr. Chu Thai Hoanh is a previous chair of the SUMERNET Steering committee. He has over 35 years of experience in research and management in agriculture and water management including: hydraulic modeling, crop modeling, optimization, and production supply-demand and climate change scenario analysis.

In the early 70’s he was the chief hydrologist in charge of hydrological measurement and analysis for the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. During 1976 - 1996, he was in charge of hydrological measurement, water modeling and remote sensing applications for water resources planning and management in South Vietnam. He also served as a lecturer on remote sensing at the University of Ho Chi Minh City (1987-1989).

He joined the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines in 1997 to conduct research in GIS and water modeling for rice and shrimp production in the coastal area, crop modeling and socio-economic analysis for regional and national balancing of rice supply and demand, and developing optimization models for land use planning with many case studies in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2001, he was awarded a medal by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam in recognition of his contributions to Agriculture and Rural Development.

Since May 2003 he has served with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) as both senior and principal Water Resources Specialist on water modeling for managing conflicts between agriculture and aquaculture, and for analyzing climate change scenarios, companion modeling that combines role-playing games with agent-based models for facilitating integrated water resources management. Recently he has served as an international specialist for the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to analyze climate change scenarios, as theme leader for irrigation for the Mekong Program on Water Environment and Resilience (M-Power) and as research coordinator of Sumernet (Sustainable Mekong Research Network).